Jean de Quen

Jean de Quen (May, c. 1603 at Amiens, France – 8 October 1659 in Quebec) was a French Jesuit missionary, priest and historian who discovered Lac Saint-Jean. As head of Jesuit missions of New France, he founded the missions to Saguenay. Jean de Quen was the first European to see Lake Piékouagami (Lake Saint-Jean).

Born around 1603 in Amiens, Picardy, Jean de Quen was about 17 years old when he joined the Jesuits on 13 September 1620. He taught for three years at the Collège in Eu, and then left for Canada. He arrived at Quebec 17 Aug. 1635, where he taught at the College of Quebec opened that same year for French and Amerindian boys. He taught there for two years before joining the Sillery mission, an initiative aimed at educating local peoples. He later left the mission and went back to Quebec to minister to the parish of Notre-Dame-de-la-Recouvrance. After a fire destroyed the school, chapel and Jesuits’ residence in 1640, he resumed his service in Sillery before venturing on to the Trois-Rivières post, where he was involved in the establishing another mission.

In 1640 he went back to Sillery, and concerned himself more particularly with the hospital. There he wore himself down to the danger point; he recovered fairly quickly, and was sent to the Trois-Rivières residence. He returned the following year to Sillery, and was in charge of that important mission centre for eight years (1642–49). He fulfilled a very active ministry there, which brought him into contact with Indians from almost everywhere, more particularly the Montagnais, whose language he learned perfectly.

In the spring of 1642 Jean de Quen was entrusted with the Montagnais mission, with which he concerned himself for 11 years. This mission had been founded the preceding year at Tadoussac, where between spring and the end of August the fur trade brought Indians from all parts of the vast territory of the Saguenay. Father de Quen was highly esteemed by the Montagnais; with the aid of Fathers Jacques Buteux, Gabriel Druillettes, Martin de Lyonne, and Charles Albanel, he created a form of summer mission suited to the existence of these nomadic peoples, and made a success of it. He formed a solid nucleus of Christians who helped him to reach the most distant groups. It was at Tadoussac that the first stone church in Canada was constructed, in 1646.

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